The Unforgiving Path
by lupus Umbra
Summary: Jaune Arc, a dog that's been kicked too many times, decided to finally bites back when his transcripts were told by Cardin, and abandoned by his team, friends, and family. Now with the help of his new partner in his head, he will become the best hunter and rise above the ranks, and become a one Man army. (my first fanfic let me know what you think.)
1. A New Partner

**Disclaimers : I do not own any of this but the oc's, everything else belongs to there rightful owners**

"Normal"- speaking

 _italics_ \- thinking\ flashback

 **Bold** \- yelling

 **Bold & underline**\- special attack

 *** Bold *** \- sound effect

The Unforgiving Path 

**Ch 1 : A new partner**

 _Hi my name's jaune arc the disowned son of the famous hunters Julius and Samantha arc. Let me tell you what's been happening this last month here at beacon academy_

 _Things haven't been good for me in my time here at beacon. I've been here for half the semester and during that time I did get better but so did everyone else so I was still far behind the others. So anyway because it was almost the end of the semester we had to do a joint mission with teams JNPR, RWBY, CRDL. Me and Cardin were fighting on what we should do when everyone was asleep and it got intense, he told me he could still control me if he wanted, I didn't believe him and said he couldn't, so he walked away. As soon as I got back Cardin went straight to Ozpin and told him of the transcripts. After that, the word got out about it and everything changed for me. Everyone looks at me differently, especially my ' friends '. Everyone's reactions were that different from each other. The girls from team RWBY's reaction were as this says. Ruby's reaction was the look of betrayal and sadness, as she walked away, Weiss's reaction was her saying " I always knew you were a waste of space here Arc " and joined Ruby on her walk back to her dorm, Yang raised her fist up but brought it down saying I wasn't worth it, tossedme on the ground and left, Blake just shook her head and Walked away from me. Nora and Ren left me on the first day and pyrrha tried to stay with me, but started avoiding me on the third day, they all abandoned me when I needed them most I can never forgive them. And to make it even worse I've been disowned from the Arc family and forced to give up Crocea Mors leaving me weapon less here at beacon. I can't even sleep in the dorm because of what happened, so I've been sleeping in prof. Port's room with his permission to use it._

 **( The present )**

I was walking down the halls to make my way to prof. Port's room when I bumped into someone and fell. I looked up to see who it was only to see the one who started this all "Cardin" I said with as much malice and venom I could make. "What's wrong Jauney boy not happy to see your friend." he said with a smirk on his face. " You're about as far from my friend as you can get." I said as I shoot up from my prone position. As soon as I got up he grabbed a fist full of my shirt and pushed hard against the wall " listen to me Jauney boy, your life may be at rock bottom but that doesn't mean I can't make it any worse."he said raising his fist to strike me. I closed my eyes and prepared for the worst until.

"I think that's enough Mr. Winchester " a feminine sounding voice said. As soon as I heard those words I was let go and slid down the wall." " I heard Cardin stutter. I turned my head to see that it was indeed the blonde professor giving Cardin a stern look." , how was yo-" Cardin didn't even get to finish his sentence as he was cut off by Goodwitch " To my office, now" she said. As soon as she said that Cardin went running for her office. I watch Cardin run but I felt myself being lifted up by Goodwitch's semblance."Are you alright " Goodwitch asked in her stern voice. "yeah my aura healed my back" I said "how did you end up here?" I asked curiously. "It was my turn to Patrol the hall and I happened to stumble up on the situation." she answered."oh ok then I'll be on my way then." I said, as I was about to pass her until her riding crop stopped me." Mr. Arc, just so you know I must see you perform in combat class tomorrow or I will be forced to give you a failing grade and the only way to make up all the classes you missed you must face a team, do you understand." she said "But professor Goodwitch I don't have a weapon to use for class tomorrow" I said, panicking as I tried to convince her."I'm sorry but you are going to have to figure that out yourself , I do wish you good luck" and with that she left. ' _Great as if I didn't have enough to handle now I have to fight a team of well-trained students tomorrow'_ I thought as I mademy way to prof. Port's room and opened the door

As soon as I made my way into the room it was around 5 o'clock in the afternoon. I took a seat and tried to think this through. ' _Alright let's think about what you're going to do tomorrow Jaune, you've got a match tomorrow with against a team of well-trained students with no weapon, barely any experience, and know one to help me, man why does this always happen to me'_ I thought, as I remember all that happened just this week.

While I was thinking about what to do tomorrow I noticed something, there was a shadow in the room that looked like it was flickering. Being curious of what was happening I took a look at it. As soon as I got close the shadow turned into a torrent of black flames. I crawled away from the flames as far as I could until my back hit a desk. When I hit the desk the flames died down only leaving a figure. I was able to see the figures body but not his face except his eyes, which were a deep Crimson, covered by a mask from the nose down. The figure looked male judging by his body shape, he was muscular, but more lean then buff, he looked a little taller than me, everything he had on was black, he had a black duster, with black cargo pants along with his combat boots, fingers-less gloves ,and a stetson hat with straight edges. He had some type of weapons on both his hips, they both had a black handle but silver blades. I first thought that this guy was the shadows themselves until I realized what I was thinking. As I was examining him he look at me and said "your aura looks like it's been through hell" he said, as i now adopted the look of confusion.

"what." I said in a confused voice as he started walking towards me.

"your aura is apart of your soul, if someone trains enough they can tell if someone's soul is in distress through their aura." he explained matter-of-factly, as if I already knew what he was saying.

"what, I'm still not following." I said, he rolled his eyes and said" just tell me what's been going on with you."

 _'should I really tell him what's going on with me, what if he attacks me_.' I thought. Before I can think of what to do, he grabbed both of the items on his hips and tossed them to the right. I looked at him confused of his actions " That's just in case you feel uncomfortable with me carrying those." he said, as he walked up to me and sat down besides me. "Alright, I'll tell you, I have nothing to lose anyways." I said upset

 **( Thirty minutes later )**

"so you made forged transcripts to make it to Beacon, made friends with a weapons geek, got flung into the Emerald forest, made partners with pyrrha nikos, one of the best hunters-in-training, not only that but made a team leader, a jerk found out that your were a fake here, stayed here until it was close to the first semester, did a joint mission with your team, team RWBY, an CRDL, got into a fight with CRDL's leader, and then you lost everything because he told about your transcripts. " he said, i could only nod my head remembering all that happened to me, before I could think further I felt the guy next to me hit the back of my head. "Ow, what was that for." I said in irritation."don't think negatively, that's what brings the Grimm" he said as he pulled out a can out of nowhere.

"Here, have one." he offered, I accepted and took can."thank but where did you get this." I questioned.

"My shadow" he answered,"your shadow, you pulled a , out of your shadow" I asked, thinking that was a lie." Yeah, watch." as soon as he said that he put his hand on his shadow and slowly let it sink in. This caused me to jump in surprise, who wouldn't this guy just stuck his hand in a shadow. He withdrew his hand with another and opened it, releasing the carbonation and making a ***crack*** sound.

He took the mask off and start drinking. Now that he took off the mask, I saw his face. He has a light brown skin tone, his face showed relaxed, yet sharp features with a mouth that seemed stuck on a straight line, and a scar ran from the middle of his cheek, down, he looked like he has experienced everything that can break a man. After that I opened the soda and relaxed in the comforting silence.

As soon as we finished the drinks he talked "So, back to the topic. Team RWBY and JNPR, these were your friends right."he asked"Yeah they were, why" I asked"I've got to say this, you've made friends with the wrong people."he said and I stared shocked at what he said."What do you mean I made friends with the wrong people, they were awesome friends." I exclaimed."Anyone can be kind to you, but we're they your friends, your partner may have been your only friend man, and even then she's avoiding you. A true friend would stick by your side no matter what." he said.

I just sat there shocked at what he said, but it did get me thinking maybe he was right. They all looked at me as if I was holding them back, then I remembered something that I never wanted to remember, something I had to force myself to forget five months ago

 **( 5 Months ago )**

 _I was walking back from the training rooms, where I tested my skill on the training bots . I am able to say I'm getting better because I was able to beat the easy option with little trouble. I was On my way to my dorm to take a shower, when I saw my dorm. When I saw it was locked When I was about to unlock it. Until I heard voices coming from team RWBY's room I didn't mind until I heard Pyrrha's voice, and then Nora and Ren's voice. Now I was curious of what was happening, I going to knock At the door until._

 _" Pyrrha, how can you stand to be near that deuce Jaune . " I heard Weiss say. " yeah, I don't get it either, why do you bother with him, he isn't getting any better. " Yang said Leading me lower into a pit._

 _" Oh come on girls he's getting better, last spar he was giving Cardin a tough time so he has to be getting better. " Pyrrha said, giving me some confidence in myself. " Yeah Cardin, that guy can barely swing his mace with out getting off balance. " Ruby said_

 _" I know what you mean, but he's a excellent tactician. " Ren said in my defense._

 _" Yeah, but do you guys feel that he holds you guys back " Weiss said. They took awhile to respond but when they did it broke me._

 ** _" Yes, we do. "_** _Pyrrha, my own partner said that and I just froze. I did nothing until I dropped my scroll on the floor . "Hey, did you guys hear that." Blake said. When I heard that I picked up the scroll, unlocked the door, and ran inside before they could open the door. I put my ear to the door and listened " Huh, guess it was nothing. " I heard Nora say and shut the door._

 **( The present )**

That night, I stayed up all night to try and forget it, when they asked me why I was tired I told them I was studying last night and they just let it go."you're right, they weren't my friend's, I will never forgive them." I said, my heart felt as if it was under too much pressure until I felt something hit my head. I rubbed my head and looked down to see a can.

"What did I tell you, negativity brings Grimm. So stop thinking like that, that's why I'm here." he said standing up. " What do you mean that's why you're here" I said.

He looked at me and grinned "I'm going to help you become the best hunter there ever was and make the others regret ditching you"

"Wait, you plan on helping me what." I asked, unsure if I heard correctly. "you heard me, I'm going to help you" he said putting on his mask. "why do you plan on helping me, we don't even know each other's names."

"Well, my name's isn't so easily told you have to earn it, but for now just call me Reaper. Alright." he said. "*sigh* That's all I'm getting out of you aren't I." he nodded, "Alright, name's Jaune arc short, sweet, ladies love it."I said, hoping he doesn't say those words. "Really, do they." dammit, he said them "No, they don't" I sighed

"Well, anyways I need to ask you something." he said, putting his hands on my shoulders and looking me straight in the eyes. "Do you trust me to give you power beyond imagination." he said with a dead serious tone.

"yeah, I do trust you." I answered. "Good, then be ready for the pain now." he said. "Wait what p-" I didn't finish, because he jumped into my shadow before I could. "AHHHHHHHHHH" I screamed as the pain that came after was felt as if I was being stabbed by one thousand heated knifes. I fell on the ground, twisted, turned, did whatever I could to ease the suffering until I passed out from the pain.

 **( unknown location )**

I woke up in what looked look a white room. "What the hell happened." I said while getting up. "Hey look who's awake." I heard a familiar voice say. "Reaper!" I said as I turned around and lo and behold there he was with his arms crossed

"Reaper, what happened where are we." I questioned, "Well Jaune, we are in your soul to answer your second question, and for your first question you passed out from the pain." he answered. "Oh yeah, what the hell was that it was the most painful thing in my life." I said looking at I'm irritated at him. "I combined our auras Jaune." he said, " What"

I said, as a bright light enveloped the world we were in. "wow that was really short, sorry Jaune, that's all the time we have I'll talk to you when you walk up." he said as the light took over.

 **( Professor port's room )**

I woke up in port room by the alarm that was set in my scroll. "you might want to wake up and take a shower." I heard. "What the, who's there." I said looking around, "Relax Jaune, it's me, Reaper" The voice now Identified. "Where are you." I said searching for him, " I'm in your head, since we combined auras this should be what happens. You should get to a shower now partner, so you can get something to eat early, today is a day I give you the first lesson ." he was right on one thing, I had to go now or the cafeteria would be crowded, I didn't like crowded places in Beacon so I left to a shower

 **End of Ch 1**

 **AN : hi guys, unknown here, this here is the first chapter of, my first story. It's an experiment story to see if you guys would like it. If you guys did like it, please leave a review, or even favorite they would all be a big help.**

 **So until next time, unknown out**


	2. Bonding souls

**Disclaimers : I do not own any of this but the oc's, everything else belongs to there rightful owners**

"Normal " - speaking

 _' italics ' - thinking \ flashback_

 _" italics " - Reaper talking (in Jaune's mind)_

 **Bold- yelling**

 **Bold & underline - special attack / Weapon name **

*** Bold * - sound effect**

 **The Unforgiving Path**

 **Ch 2 : bonding souls**

' _Man, I still have face a team today don't I_.' I thought as I just finished my shower, and changed into my uniform.

" _OK, now that the shower is done let's get breakfast_." Reaper said eagerly.

"OK, fine we'll go, hope we don't run into anyone I know." I said, as I made my way to the cafeteria.

 **( The halls )**

I was very cautious on my way to the cafeteria, to make sure I didn't run into anybody. " Isn't that the guy who forged his transcripts." I heard someone say. I looked left to see two people talking down a long hallway. ' _What the hell." I thought, "yeah that's him, I don't understand why Ozpin keeps him here, he's going to get himself killed." the other guy said. ' How can I hear them from this far, I shouldn't be able to._ ' I thought, moving along while trying to figure this out.

" _It's because we share the same senses, Jaune. "_ Reaper said

"Wait, how's that possible, how do we share our senses, and I thought only faunus can only have senses this high, Are you a faunus Reaper?" I asked trying to see if I can find out more more about him.

" _for your first question, It's because we combined our auras, so in a way our souls are connected, hell, I wouldn't be surprised if you can use my aura to. For you second question you don't have to be a faunus to have high senses, you just have to train them. and for your third no I'm not a faunus._ " he responded.

"Wow, so our souls are combined?" I asked

" _In a way yes, our souls are connected, so now I can give you aura if things get hasty in a fight, and you might want to just talk to me in your head,people will think you're crazy_. " he said, as we passed two girls that whispered "weirdo" and "creep". " _Damn, girls must line up to get your number._ " Reaper "complemented"

"Shut up, Reaper"

 **( The cafeteria )**

The cafeteria wasn't busy, that was good for me since I didn't have to deal with too many glares as I made my way to the line to get breakfast.

" _Hey can you double up on breakfast for today Jaune._ " Reaper asked

' _OK, but why?_ ' I asked as I got to the front of the line. A woman was waiting there, ready to take my order

" _I'll tell you why later, for now order_." he said

"Hi there, what will you be having today sweetie?" the woman asked.

" Hi, can I get two breakfast sandwiches, two cups of orange juice, and two apples." I said, and with that she turned around and started to get the food

" _So where do we plan on eating, because it doesn't look very welcoming here_." Reaper said

I turned my head to see that the cafeteria started to get busy. There were many people, and with more people more glares. You would think that it would stop after a month, but it never has.

" Here you go, two breakfast sandwiches, two orange juices, and two apples, enjoy." I heard the woman say.

" Oh, thank you ma'am, have a nice day." I said as I picked up the tray and walked away from the line.

I was making my way to the door until I saw them open. I look to see who it was and saw the people I was trying to avoid.

There at the door was team RWBY, and NPR. I was so shocked that I just stood there and panicked. Me standing there gave them enough time to spot me in my shock.

" _Jaune, you're starting to panic, what's going on?_ " Reaper questioned.

' _It's them, my old team, and team RWBY. I'm not ready to face them yet_.' I answered, almost shaking through my pants.

I hoped that they would just raise their head and walk away like they always did, but instead, they walked towards me. Now at this point I actually started to freak out.

" _Jaune, you're starting to hyperventilate, you have to calm down_." Reaper said

Before I could think, I dropped the tray, and ran the other direction hoping to escape them.

"Get back here Jaune." I heard Ruby said,but I just ran not listening.

" _Quick, get behind the pillar, fast, there all following us, and one of them is gaining on us, this one's the fastest_." Reaper ordered.

' _Ruby must be using her semblance to catch up_.' i thought as I looked for the pillar Reaper mentioned, while dodging people that got in my way. I found the pillar, but it was to far for me to reach in time.

" _Damn it. Jaune focus your aura into your legs and keep running_." Reaper ordered

"What, why would I do that at a time like this." I said, listening to the footsteps get closer and closer with each step I took.

" **_Just listen and do it. "_** Reaper shouted as I responded.

' _OK, fine I will_.' I replied, not being left with any options.

I tried to concentrate my aura to my legs while being focused what's in front of me. Then, I suddenly felt like I was faster, lighter, more nimble. I looked down to see my legs glowing a bright white. The surprise didn't last long, as I already behind the pillar, and leaning against it.

' _Alright, I'm here now what?_ ' I said, looking around the pillar to see if they followed. They were all in front of the pillar waiting for something.

" _OK, give me a minute, I need to do something_." Reaper said.

Then, I felt something around my left arm. I looked down to see what was happening, only to see my arm covered in a black aura. It looked menacing but it was actually warm, and welcoming. Then the aura started spiraling above my Palm to form a black ball the size of a golf ball, then it shoot into the shadow the pillar casted, and then it turned darker.

" _OK, I'm done, all you have to do is run into the shadow_." Reaper said

"What, Reaper I'm not running into a shadow, why would I, it makes no sense." I said a little above a whisper to avoid the others hearing.

" Jaune, come out, we need to talk." Yang said, putting emphasis on the 'talk' of the sentence. Then they all started walking forward towards me.

" you know what, I have nothing to lose anyways." I said while running into the shadow. Then, to my complete surprise, I walked straight through.

" Now we hav- hey where'd he go?" said Yang, now where Jaune used to be, not noticing the shadow turn from black, to a gray color.

" Did you get him Yang?" asked Ruby, now beside her sister.

" No, He was here a second ago and then disappear. " Yang said, looking around seeing if there were any traces to lead to him.

 **( Professor port's room )**

After I went through the shadow, I opened my eyes to see a ceiling of a classroom. I pushed myself up into a sitting position to see where I was, and from the looks of it, I was back in Prof. Port's room.

" Hey, need help up" I heard Reaper say. I looked in front of me, only to see a gloved hand.

" Sure." I said, accepting the hand and being pulled up. I was about to walk towards a desk to sit in, until I noticed something " Hey wait a minute, how are you out of my head?"I questioned with a surprised tone.

" Jaune, I don't know if I told you this, but I can leave you body anytime I want to." he said in a matter of fact tone.

" Really, but I thought that our souls where connection." I said confused by what was happening, this is too much for me to handle.

" I said our auras were connected, not our souls, and even if our souls were, doesn't mean I have to stay inside your head, so if I ever feel that you are the wrong host, I can leave your body whenever I want." he explained, making it easier for me to understand. "if we're going to continue this Q&A let's at least eat breakfast." he said, walking to a desk and taking a seat.

" Yeah, about that. I kinda dropped the food when I ran away, sorry about that." I said sheepishly.

"I know but I saved the sandwiches, that should be enough for breakfast, right." and with that, he pulled out two sandwiches from nowhere. "Here" he offered.

'I'm not even going to ask how he got them' I thought "Thanks." I said taking sandwich, a and the seat next to him

"So have any questions you want to ask?" he said while taking off the mask, and digging into the sandwich.

Now that I thought about it, I did have questions but not very many.

" yeah, what was that back there, when I was running and the aura helped me go faster, what was that." I asked watching him eat the sandwich.

He paused from taking another bit to answer my question. " What happened was, when you surrounded you leg with aura, the muscles in the legs were given strength, and relaxed to the point where it felt like you were walking on air, and aura can do a lot more then that, but that's a lesson for another time. Anything else?" he said, finishing his breakfast.

"Yeah, when I was behind the pillar, some black aura came out of my hand, and shoot into the shadow, what was that about." I said, now deciding to eat my breakfast.

" That was my aura that shot into it, that's what I needed to do in order it activate my semblance." he said

I look at him, questioning if he was telling the truth or not. "What's your semblance Reaper, can you teleport?" I asked continuing to eat my breakfast, while Reaper kicks his feet up on the desk, leans back and pop open a Pepschnee. ' How many of those does he even have' I mentally deadpanned

" Well since we're going to be partners, and you might need to use it on your own one day, I'll tell you." he said taking a swig of the soda. " My semblance is Shadow Manipulation."

"what's that mean?" I asked

" I had a feeling that you would say that, so let me explain and make an example with my weapon." he said, picking up the mask and clipping it to his side so he would stand, and held his palm downward. Then suddenly, all the shadows in the room started to shift towards his palm, the action caused me to jump up on the desk thinking that it would save me. As soon as the shadows meet under his palm, they started to come to life, as they lifted from the ground to meet his palm. When they did meet, the shadow started to take a form, it look like it it would be a polearm type weapon, like a bo staff or a spear, then the shadows made the shape a large, curved at the top, then the shadows shot away and revealed what it was. What I saw next left me in awe.

There in Reaper's hand was a was a great scythe. The handle of the weapon was a black with thin, red paints covering it in a twisting fashion, and a ring in the center of it. The blade of the scythe, which was near his neck, looked really intimidating, it looked like it was three feet long, it was sharp all around so it would cut anywhere, the bevels of the blade had some type of wavy texture. Near the base of the blade it curved in leaving a semi-circle that looked like it was meant to decapitate Grimm, the bottom of the scythe had a blade identical to the first one, except smaller, and straight out. The most noticing feature though, was the red crystal on the top of the staff section, it didn't look like any dust crystal I've seen before. Before I could continue Reaper started speaking.

" Shadow Manipulation gives me the ability to control the shadows that I've connected my aura, it can do a lot for me, like fighting, teleporting, storing stuff, and lots more. What you witnessed just now, was me calling the upon the shadows to give me my weapon here." He said, giving the scythe a full rotation in his hands and putting it in the same position as it was before.

" Wait, this is your weapon?" I asked, getting off the desk.

" Yep, this is my weapon, it's name is Phantom obsidian." he said with pride in his voice.

" But if this is your weapon, then what were those things on your hips when we first met?" I said, looking to see if they're there. They weren't.

" that was Phantom, in its dual wield form, watch." he said while giving the scythe a small, but firm pull and they came apart by the ring at the center. When they came apart the bottom blade went from being nearly identical, to fully. Besides the crystal, everything was the same the shape, the size, hell even the texture on the bevels were the same.

" This is the form I usually keep them in ether for fighting or just to keep it sheathed." he said, putting the scythes to his hips, when he did, they folded so they would hang there comfortably.

" well, that makes it easier to understand." I said sitting back down in a chair, Reaper doing the same. " but I have one more question to ask you, it's been bugging me."

"shoot." he said, drinking more of his soda, relaxing once more.

" why me, why are you choosing to help me of all the people in the world. A scrawny, weak, stupid guy who had to cheat his way into a combat school without being aware of the risks." I asked

I looked at him to see if he would do anything, but he didn't do anything. He didn't move, flinch, look, blink, he didn't even breath. If I didn't know any better, I would think he was a statue. After awhile, he looked at me with a look that said ' I've been through too much' and then he spoke

" Jaune, can I tell you a story about myself?" he asked looking to the floor, as if he was nervous to tell me.

" Sure, you can tell me." I said. He waited a while, thinking of the words to to say.

" When I was young, I lived in a small village near Mistrial known as Frontída. We weren't the best village but we were a happy one, there were hardly any trouble, kids played, family's were happy, people worked together, and I was happy there." he told with a small smile on his face.

" during that time I was five, I had a happy family. I had a mother, and a father, both professional hunters, and grandparents, they were retired, and my mother was on a maternity leave because she was expecting a daughter, so that meant I was getting a sister, and I was ecstatic to have one, every time I would go outside I would meet my best friend. She was a wolf faunus,her name was Lýkos, we were pretty much inseparable, we would play all day until bedtime." he continued, but now the smile turned into a frown, and started to clench his fists, I thought I could hear the atoms that we're trapped in them start to break.

" Then my peaceful life was ruined." he said, eyebrows now furrowed, as if he was looking at his worst enemy.

" Some guy came to our village leader, demanding that he have complete control of our village, and its forces, the leader denied him any control. So the man left. Later on that night our village was attacked and set ablaze by the same man. I lost everything that I held close to me just because some ass hole didn't get his way. The only reason I'm still alive is because my dad ran and put me in the safe house the village had and, he gave me my mother's necklace said she always wanted me to have it and ran back to the fight. The worst part of it was that I was probably the only survivor of that massacre for all I know." he finished, releasing his fist and calming down. " After that the Grimm came and swept the village of what was left. I was out of the safe house at the time so I was forced to run with only two things to remember my family." he said, reaching into his shirt and and pulling out a necklace, that had a that had a silver chain, and a purple gem hanging from it.

"So Jaune, to answer your question, the reason I choose to help you was because when I first saw you yesterday, I saw myself in you. You had the look of sadness, fear, betrayal, and your story only proved my point more. A boy who had everything stripped from him, just because some jerk didn't get his way. At that point I knew I had to help you, so you wouldn't become like me." he said putting my question to rest.

" you've been through so much, and at an age like that, how did you survive?" I asked, thinking of what to say after that.

" I'll tell you that another time, for now please answer my question." he said, getting up and looking at me with a soft expression.

" OK, what is it?" I asked, as he walked towards me and stopped on top of my shadow.

" Why did you trust me so fast? for all you know I could have came to murder you." He asked, now deciding to clip his mask on his face.

It was a question that I didn't expect, so it took me some time to answer, he just stood there waiting for his answer.

" Reaper, the reason I trusted you so fast was because you were the first person to show me kindness in a whole month." I said but he didn't look satisfied with my answer, so I continued.

" This whole month here at Beacon has been nothing but a hell hole. I was abandoned by my friends, disowned by the Arc family, pushed around. I couldn't even go into the city without getting any dirty looks because everyone knows about the headline that hit the world 'The Arc Failure' that cheated his way into Beacon. I had no plans for whenever this would happen, so I was lost. But you were different, now I'm not going to lie I thought you were going to kill me when I told you everything, but no, you didn't do anything, but you actually decided to help me become a stronger, so that's why I trusted you so fast." I finished, Reaper looked satisfied with my answer this time.

" And besides." I said, bringing my fist out to him. " Strangers are just friends you haven't meet yet" I finished.

Reaper stood there not doing anything, before he chuckled. It was hard to tell with the mask, but I knew there was a smile on his face.

" Yeah man, now I definitely know that me and you will get along just fine." he said as he raised his fist, then we gave each other a fist bump. Then he started to sink into my shadow, but it was a different feeling this time, it felt as if warm water was being slowly poured onto me and it was pleasant. Then he completely submerged into my shadow.

Then I heard the door open and low and behold, there was the owner of this classroom, professor port.

" Oh mister Arc you're here already, it's a little early don't you think." the jolly man said, as he started to walk down the stairs to get to the bottom. I looked to see what time it was, it was 8:30 AM.

' _30 more minutes until class starts_.' I thought. " Yeah, I just wanted to get here early so I can prepare for class today." I said.

" It's a bit of a surprise, you're the first to come to class this early" he said, reaching the bottom of the stairs, and walked to his desk.

" Well you know what they say, it's better to be an hour early than a minute late." I said, hoping those words would cut me free.

" Very true mister Arc, very true indeed." he said reaching his desk to prepare for his classes.

" _Nice, you pulled it off_." I heard Reaper praise.

" That reminds me of a time when I was young hunter, i'll tell you when class starts." he said turning around to write something on the chalkboard.

' _Oh Oum, why_.' I mentally mourned, as I now had to prepare for Prof. Port's torturous stories.

" _what's wrong, it's just some stories_." Reaper said, unaware of the tournament that lied ahead.

' _Oh , you're going to be in for a big surprise_.' I finished.

 **End of Ch 2**

 **AN: Unknown back guys, and here is another chapter.**

 **I just want to thank you all for all the likes and the favorites of this story. So thank you, and if you guys enjoyed it then please follow, favorite, and review**

 **And until the next chapter, unknown out**


	3. Experience

**Disclaimers : I do not own any of this but the oc's, everything else belongs to there rightful owners**

" Normal " - speaking

' _italics ' - thinking \ flashback_

" _italics " - Reaper talking_

 **Bold - yelling**

 **Bold & underline - special attack / Weapon name **

***Bold * - sound effect**

 **The Unforgiving Path**

 **Ch 3: Experience**

 **(Professor port's room)**

" -And that class, is how I took on an entire hoard of beowolfs with just a branch from a sapling." the literary sadist, we call professor Port said, finishing his story. Not noticing half the classroom asleep.

But out of all the students that we're awake, I was one of the students that last through the story session. Seeing as I have half the classroom to myself, I couldn't get away with sleeping in class so I was forced to stay up and listen. I was fine, but I was a little tired, Reaper on the other hand, he wasn't taking it so well.

" _Finally, his story finally ended, great Oum, how long have we been in this torture chamber. A day, a week, a month, please answer me."_ Reaper wailed, praying to Oum for an answer.

' _It's been twenty-five minutes, the class still has thirty-five more minutes.'_ I answered, looking any the clock on top of the door that lead to the exit.

" _Really, your teacher makes it feel like a year. How do you go through this everyday?"_ he said

' _Dedication, coffee, thoughts of a pissed off Goodwitch and you're set.'_ I answered as I scribbled random things in my notebook.

" Now let's see here, can you answer my question." I heard the professor say. Lifting up my head to see what was going on. Only to see Port, and whatever part of the class that was awake staring at me.

"What." That was my response to what he just said. It looked like lady luck was on my side, because he seemed to have thought something else of my actions.

" Oh, I see, you were so caught up in taking notes that you didn't hear my question." he assumed, adding one of his traditional hearty laughs to the end of his sentence.

" Y-yeah sorry professor, can you repeat the question again." I said, thanking whatever holy being there was for the slip. Whatever part of the class that wasn't asleep started to get on the edge of their seat just to see me fail at the question.

" Of course Mr. Arc, the question was, why are beowolfs consider to be a threat, even if they are the lowest class of Grimm." Port repeated. And once again I saw other students snickering.

" Oh man, this is going to be a train wreck." one student said. not even trying to whisper, as the student next to him chuckled.

Once again, I felt everyone's stare on me, knowing that my knowledge on Grimm was low. It took all of my willpower not to cause a puddle with my sweat. Everyone staring at me didn't exactly make things better, especially teams NPR and RWBY.

" _Jaune what wrong, the question should be as simple as 2+2."_ Reaper said.

' _Dude remember, snuck in here, the only thing I know about Grimm is kill them.'_ I said, looking around to see if they were still staring. Everyone was.

" , we're waiting on your answer." a

Professor said, getting a little impatient with how much time I was taking.

" _Alright, just repeat what I say alright."_ Reaper said, then told me what to say.

" Um, beowolfs are considered a threat because of the sheer numbers they have in each of there pacts, not only that, but an alpha can be pretty dangerous. Seeing as they have more armor and body spikes, there claws are also larger so that they could leave bigger cuts on there prey."

The class seemed to be shocked by the answer, but that wasn't the end of the question.

" And what do you think would be the best way to combat these monster."

I listened closely to what Reaper was saying, I repeated with no hesitation.

" My idea of combating them would be to do anything as long as you are able to sever the spinal cord. If it's torn, the body won't be able to respond to the electrical signals it's brain sends. Dying either instantly, or moment after. But that's just an opinion." I said, putting my chin to rest on the palm of my hand.

"Mr. Arc, that was…" oh great I think that I just made a bigger fool of myself. I can already see the other students laughing in there. "one of the best answers I have ever heard."

" **Huh** " the entire class repeat in surprise, including me.

" Never in my teaching career, have I ever had a student so expertly explain the proper way to kill a Grimm, most student don't even know what the Grimm anatomy is like, how is it that you do though." he asked, lifting one of his eyebrows .

" Thank you professor port, I've been trying to keep up with my studies." I lied, keeping the one in my head a secret.

" Indeed you have young man." he said as his head to me and turning to the rest of the class. " but now that the question is out of the way, would anyone like to try to this method out for a test." he said taking his hand away from his back, guiding his open palm to the corner of the room.

Looking to the corner, I saw a large cage. At first it looked empty, but I was wrong, as a pair of red eyes opened. Then the caged jumped with a violent shake, followed by growling.

" Who here feels like they are brave enough to face Charles over here."

No one raised their hand, as everyone seemed to not want to embarrass themselves in front of the whole class. I didn't raise my hand for obvious reasons, seeing that I'm still bad at fighting. Well that what I thought anyways, until my left hand shot up and my right hand slammed on the desk, attracting the attention of professor Port, and the classroom once again. Seeing the action wasn't my own, it left me in a daze.

"Mr. Arc, I can see that you're excited to face Charles, but are you sure you want to do that." Port asked, bringing his hands behind him.

Before I could say a single syllable, I stood up and started walking towards the exit. Now I was confused, I was doing absolutely nothing, yet my body was moving.

" Oh, action before words I see. I like your style." he said as I walked out the door, confusion written over my face.

" What the hell is going on." I said walking down the hallway. Before I came to a stop.

" _You'll thank me for this later."_ Reaper said

'"What did you do _."_

" _I volunteered you by possessing you, I told you I can do that right."_

" **NO, YOU DIDN'T!** _ **"**_. I shouted thankful that the hallway was empty.

" _Oh, well I'm trying to help you by giving you experience. Because what you have now you'll be slaughtered within the next major Grimm you come across."_

I sighed "But do you think you could have told me, I mean this is my body you're in _."_ I said taking a right, and now walking straight ahead. " Now I have to prepare for a fight with Charles. _"_

Now in front of the door leading to the locker room, walked in and straight to my locker. Took me a few minutes to find my locker seeing how big the room was, but I found it nonetheless.

' _let's see what was the code again, 0726, yep that's it.'_ now with the locker opened, I saw nothing in the locker but my hoodie, pants, and sneakers. " crap, I don't have any gear for the fight _."_ I sighed, facepalming leaving a loud slapping sound to echo through the room. I still changed into the clothes, not wanting to ruin my uniform.

" _No gear, huh."_ my mental partner said, while I shut the locker and found a seat to sit in.

" Nope, everything was taken back by the Arcs because it was their property, so I'm basically a dead man walking in this school."

" _Well, that makes it simple, I have a something for you."_ He said.

" what is it?"

" _Give me a minute, I need to find them."_ He said, followed by the sound of stuff being tossed around " _Here it is, I think that you might like this Jaune."_

Then for the second time today, the shadows started to shift. This time though, they were shifting towards me. I jumped in shock, until the shadow jumped to my arms and legs. Once they were on me though, I felt something wrap around my arms and something on my legs. When the shadows left there were armor on my arms and legs. The the armor on my arms where what looked to be bracers. The bracers were golden with a weird look, they both had a design that gave them both a face that reminded of a golem. The armor on my legs were silver, they seemed to only cover my shins and knees to allow my legs to move freely. They didn't look very unique as compared to the bracers, but they felt like they wouldn't break anytime soon. My shoes were changed too, they went from being a pair of sneakers, to a some brown boots that felt very flexible.

" What are these Reaper." I said admiring the new gear that was put on me.

" _something i decided to stop wearing, so it's your new armor now. Or at least part of it, you'll get the rest later. Now answer me, do you know any martial art, or fighting styles?"_ Reaper asked me, now that I stopped looking at the armor.

I stood up and started toward the door " Not very much. Just the basics of boxing and some grapples, why." I answered, exiting the door and making a left to reach the room.

" _Because anything helps in a fight, whether it be experience, or performance. Having both would be great."_ Reaper said as I approached the door to port's room. " _So, you ready to face your enemy."_

"No"

" _Well too bad, you're doing it whether you like it or not so let's go."_ he said.

I rolled my eyes at this and decided to open the door to the class. When I did, Port was just finishing putting the in the center of the room.

" Back already mr. Arc, that was fast." Port said, wiping a little sweat off his brow.

I looked to the clock above to see how much time I took. It looked like I took five minutes to get into the gear. Walking down the stairs I answered him.

" Well I didn't put on much gear, so I didn't take too long." I answered, reaching the bottom of the stairs.

He nodded, then looked me up and down as if he was inspecting me. " I can see that, can I ask, is that new armor." Port asked in an interested tone.

" yeah, there something that I've been I've kept for awhile." I said, looking at the gear once again.

" Really now, that good. They do look oddly familiar though." he said. " No matter, are you ready for your fight. He finished, preparing his blunderaxe to break the lock that held the Grimm captive.

I nodded my head to him indicating that I was ready, seeing no way out of this. I got into a boxing stance I saw Yang use. Everything was quiet, so quiet you could hear a pin drop, then the lock was cut.

That was when whatever was in the cage busted out, revealing a beowolf alpha. The alpha was big, it looked to be 6'10, the armor on the Grimm was located specifically around it's chest and head, fangs were fully out, and dripping with maw, three spikes protruded from each of its shoulders, it's claws extended with red painted on them, almost like it was blood. It seemed to be looking for a target to pray on, then it eyes landed on mine, making me tense up in fear. Then it let out a fierce roar, and charged.

" _Jaune, move!"_ Reapercommanded.

I jumped and rolled to the right to avoid the claw aiming to take my head. I managed to avoid the claw, but felt the wind from the strike. I recovered from the roll in a kneeling position, adrenaline practically replacing the blood in my veins. As I was kneeling, something from my head fell, I look to find out what it was. It was my hair.

' _What would I give to be Yang right now.'_ I mentallygroaned. Shooting back up to avoid another swipe from its claws, it went on like this for a few minutes until my back hit the wall, I looked back, only to see the gray plastered wall. A roar took my eyes away from the wall, I looked back at the beast, only to see it right in front of me, claw raised. Then time slowed down, literally, the beowolf's claw seemed to be coming at me very slow, almost at a snail's pace. It took time to get me out of my confusion, then I realized I was fighting, so I slipped under its claw, and got a good distance away, then time resume, putting me in more confusion. I looked to the rest of the class to see if they notice, but they seemed to be looking for something, then they looked at me, all of there eyes almost bulged out of there sockets.

' _What the hell just happened.'_ I thought as I tried to wrap my head around what happened.

" _Jaune, you never take you eyes off of your enemy."_ Reaper said, effectively bringing me back into the fight.

' _Oh crap.'_ I thought, whipping my head back to the beowolf. When I looked back, I saw the beowolf was struggling with something, while he was looking at me with one claw trying to get me, his other claw wasn't moving. I moved to the right to see what was the problem, it's claw seemed to be in planted to the wall.

" _It's claw must be stuck on a stud in the wall."_ Reaper concluded. " _Now's the perfect chance to attack Jaune."_

I nodded, running towards the beast. Avoiding it's claw, I grabbed it's forearm and swept its legs, causing it to go off-balance. Then before it could hit the floor, I wrapped its arm over my shoulder and through it performing an arm throw so fast, it almost made me dizzy. After that, I heard the class gasp in surprise, I looked up to see what happened to the wolf, only to see it on the other side of the classroom.

" _looks like you gained more that just my senses Jaune."_ Reapersaid as the beowolf got up. When the beowolf got back up it looked at me and growled in frustration and pain. Then I noticed something about the beast, it's entire left arm was missing. I looked back and saw its arm, it was just hanging there limp and dead, before it started to turn to ash. " _Stay focused, your enemy isn't dead yet."_ Reaper calmly stated.

I looked back to see the beowolf charging at me once again. As the beowolf was charging me, I got an insane idea.

' _If channeling aura to my legs me faster. What would happen if I did this.'_ I asked myself, bringing up my right arm in front of me, and focused my aura into it. Then my arm started to glow a bright white, but this time the aura also had a black outline, showing Reaper's assistance in this matter.

" _Jaune, let's finish this in one blow."_ Reaper said _,_ sounding as if he knew my plan.

I didn'tanswer, I just looked up at the beowolf and stood still, waiting for the right moment to release my attack. Then for the second time, time slowed down.

' _Three.'_ the beowolf was starting to close in, claw high in the air, ready to take my life.

' _Two.'_ The beast was now five feet in front of me, bringing its claw down. I brought my left arm up to block it with my bracer. When the claw met the metal sparks flew and I almost fell due to the pressure the attack generated.

' _One.'_ As I held the claw back with my left arm, I cocked my right arm and prepared to release the now condensed aura.

' _Now.'_ And the I punched the beowolf straight in the chest. As my fist sunk into its chest, the Grimm plate that covered it started to break under my fist. Then an explosion followed after, bringing a cloud of dust, and leaving my ears ringing. When the dust cleared, all I saw left of the Grimm was its lower half.

" What the-" I said, looking behind the legs and saw the floor caved in, I followed it and saw the other half of the Grimm in planted into the wall with a web like pattern behind it then it started to turn to ash. "hell." I finished.

Everyone was put into a state of awe, watching the ashes disappear. And then there was a awkward round of applause.

" My dust, that was incredible Mr. Arc." professor Port said.

" Indeed it was Professor." an unknown voice said bringing all of our attention to the door.

" Professor Ozpin, what are you doing here?" Port asked.

" I came to see what the ruckus was about, and then I come to see a student obliterate a Grimm along with school property." Ozpin said looking at me. " Young man could you please along with me to my office." he said walking out the door.

' _well if the transcripts didn't get me expelled this surely will'_ I thought while I followed Ozpin.

 **(End of Ch 3)**

 **AN : hey guys I'm back and here's another chapter for you guy. This chapter was originally going to be posted last week but I didn't like the idea so I changed the idea.**

 **Also thank you to all who were patient with this chapter. Also leave a review and tell me if there are any problems or your thoughts. But until then unknown out.**


	4. A Daring Deal

**Disclaimers : I do not own any of this but the oc's, everything else belongs to there rightful owners**

" Normal " - speaking

' _italics ' - thinking \ flashback_

" _italics " - Reaper talking_

 **Bold - yelling**

 *** Bold * - sound effect**

 **The Unforgiving Path**

 **Ch 4: A Daring Deal**

Have you ever been scared in your life? What am I kidding, of course you've been scared. It's only natural. But the only way I can describe what I'm feeling right now, is like knowing i'm walking into a minefield. One wrong step and you die.

Ozpin and I were walking along the hallway that lead to his office. None of us spoke a word, the only thing that made a sound was Ozpin's cane.

Then the cane stopped along with me as now I was standing in front of an elevator. The headmaster pushed the button calling the elevator. Ozpin reach his hand out and pushed the button to call the elevator.

Seconds after calling for it, the doors opened and Ozpin walked in and beckoned me to join him.

" Come now Mr. Arc, you have nothing to be afraid of." He said noticing how tense my body. I didn't respond, I just walked into the elevator and avoided eye contact. Walking right past him, I felt the heat from his coffee. Given any other situation the heat would barely be noticeable, but in my situation the heat was enough to make me nearly jump, but I ignored it and moved to the railing and looked out the window and saw a beautiful view of Beacon. The view was nice, the sun was shining, the grass was green, the flowers were blooming, these were all sign that showed spring was approaching. The view almost looked like it was painted, but it brought my mind to a slight ease.

… until I was brought back by a guy obsessed with black.

" _Wow Jaune, you're more anxious then a teenage boy on his first date."_ My mental partner said.

' _yeah,'_ I replied, ignoring the joke, ' _It's not like I'm walking towards my probable expulsion.'_ I finished, running my hand through my messy hair then feeling a slight jerk upwards signaling the elevator working it's way to his office.

" _I don't think that he is going to expel you just for property damage."_ Reaper said trying to comfort me.

' _I don't know. In my position anything can be a possibility leading towards it."_ I said, uncertain of what might happen to me.

" _Jaune_ , _you can't keep pulling yourself back into the pit. Give yourself some credit, you just got out of a fight that could have very well taken your life, you used your aura in a way that people can only dream. And you did this with no weapon, or proper training."_ Reaper said, obviously not wanting to hear this constant belittling of myself.

' _That's because you were there to help me Reaper. Plus it was just a beowolf.'_ I replied looking up to see if we were any closer and judging by the distance we had at least a few seconds to go.

" _No! The only thing I did was tell you to stay focused. You did the rest. And even if it was just a beowolf, not many people would face one with their fists."_ Reaper replied in a more calm tone.

' _Really?'_ I asked. Then suddenly remembering Yang and how she fought. Would she technically be fighting with her fists.

Before I could get a answer, the elevator stopped and the door opened. Ozpin walked out with me in tow. As soon as I walked out I immediately began to inspect the place. It had everything that you would see in a clock, it had bolts, gears and whatever else you needed and all was protected by a glass pane.

" Is something troubling you." I heard Ozpin said as he sat down in his desk, give a sigh as he got comfortable in his chair.

" No, but I do have a question." I said as I sat down in one of the two chairs in front of him. " Have you ever had an issue with the glass breaking?" I asked.

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and answered. " I've never had to worry about to windows breaking. As they are reinforced with dust, you can shoot a bullet at it and it would leave a mark." he answer. " Now Mr. Arc, you do know why you're here. Right?" Ozpin said.

" No sir, you never told me why." I answered. Then he waited as If he thought I knew the answer to his questions. Him seeing that I wasn't going to answer anytime soon, he continued.

" I brought you here to ask you questions." he said. " I would first like to know about what happened at Professor Port's classroom. I came in the classroom when the beowolf was released, I saw how you tensed up. Now I'm not one to jump to conclusions, and stop me if I'm wrong. But my best guess was that you were afraid " he said , leaning forward and setting his elbows on the table.

" No sir, you're not wrong." I replied

He then folded his hands and put them in front of his lips. " If that's so then can you please answer me this? I was told that you took down a Ursa Major when you went out to collect sap for Professor Peach. Why is it that you had the courage to take down a B-class Grimm, but got scared of a C-class Grimm. "

' _Because some guy in my head possessed me to fight the alpha.'_ I groaned mentally, praying that he would hear it and believe it. " Well sir it was the first time volunteered for a fight in a while. Not only that but I went into the fight without a weapon. And yet I was fighting without any proper knowledge of how to fight with my fists." I said to him.

He first let out a sigh before speaking. " So you volunteered to fight a Grimm. Knowing full-well that you might come not come out alive." Ozpin said. I only nodded, with the weight of his words coming down on me. " Mr. Arc I know for a fact that you are smart enough to know when you are able to fight or not. I've seen things like this happen many times before, they were eather in the wrong state of mind, or they were forced to do what they did." he stated as took his glasses off, and stood. " And frankly, I believe that you were forced." he finished, giving me a look that could sent any Grimm running in the opposite direction.

My heart began to beat faster as the words left his mouth. ' _Does he know of Reaper, what's he going to do if he finds out about him.'_ these were the only thoughts that were running through my head. " W-What do you mean professor? No one forced me." I said hesitantly.

He shook his head gently before saying, " I don't mean anyone from this school Mr. Arc. I mean the other soul inside your body." and then, my heart dropped. This meant that Ozpin found out about Reaper. " And please do not try to act dumb about it, that's the only thing that can make this situation worse." he finished.

There was no use. I wouldn't be able to lie to him, even if I tried he would see straight through it.

" How did you find out." I asked hanging my head low and avoiding his eyes.

" When you finished the beowolf off with that 'attack' of yours. I noticed a black outline around your fist, it was small, but it was there. There were never any reported cases of a single person having multicolored auras. The only way that can happen is if two souls were to share one body. " he explained, reaching out and wrapping his hand around his coffee mug and brought it to his lips and took a few gulps " That's the only possibility Mr. Arc." And with that the silence followed

" Show me him." he stated, breaking the silence

"What?" I said

" Show him to me." he repeated

" Professor, I don't thin-" Suddenly, I began to feel cold, like I had been shoved into a freezer. The sudden change made me gasp

" You called." I heard someone say. I didn't even need to turn back to know who it was.

" Nevermind." I muttered, still in a slight shock from the change in temperature. my best guess was because of Reaper leaving my body. This may have been the second time he left my body. But this is the first time I experienced it, if that makes sense.

I looked up to see Ozpin's reaction to the character that stood behind me. He didn't reaction was no different from his normal stoic look.

" So this is the one that has been residing in your body." he said. "May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?" Ozpin asked.

I looked back at Reaper wanting to hear his response. He had a stare that seemed to be fixed on Ozpin.

" Reaper." was his only response.

" Interesting name." said Ozpin with a raised eyebrow.

" It's not the one I was born with."

Ozpin didn't reply, seeing how wasn't going to say his name any time soon, he changed the subject.

" So were you the one to 'volunteered' Mr. Arc to fight the beowolf." he questioned.

" Yes. I was the one." Reaper replied.

" You know. I don't appreciate when my students are thrown into danger when they're not ready to face it. Especially when it can be avoided. " Ozpin said. I then started to get a strange feeling. It felt ominous, and cold but I ignored it.

" Really now. You don't like your students thrown into danger." Reaper said. To which Ozpin only nodded. " Because from what I heard. In order to be accepted into Beacon you must be thrown into the Emerald Forest, which is a hot spot for Grimm, to retrieve a relic. Which I heard, were chess pieces. You through your students in a life threatening situation for sometime barely worth any lien. And for what? A partner, A team." Reaper said while I started to panic. Never in my time in Beacon have I heard anyone talk to Ozpin like that.

I looked at Ozpin to see his expression to Reaper statement, the only thing I saw change was the grip he had on the cups handle. The handle was probably grinding to dust by now.

" I'm not trying to bash on your way of doing things, heck i'm sure that you have a good reason to do what you do." Reaper said, noticing his grip on the handle. Walking to the chair next to me, he sat down. " But if you take both situations and compare them. Which one sounds worse?" Reaper asked, looking Ozpin straight in his eyes.

" I am aware that my method of making teams is a bit…extreme." Ozpin admitted. " But in my experience of being headmaster, i've figured that this way is the best way to make teams. I would rather not explain it to you." The grip on the handle eased.

Reaper only shrugged " Whether you tell me or not is up to you, I really don't care. Let's stop talking about this, I know that you didn't ask for me to come out here to talk about your way of team making. I'm sure that you have another reason."

" I do, I want to ask you a few questions regarding you." Ozpin said " My first question is how you got into the school grounds. There are multiple teachers that guard these grounds. How is it that you were able to slip pass? I can't even find you in any of our security footage that I went over yesterday." Ozpin said while bringing up multiple camera recording on his desk.

Reaper stayed quiet for a few seconds to find his answer. " Would you believe if I told you that I teleported into the school grounds." Reaper said, as we both looked at different cameras. Nothing really interesting in any of them, except for one that showed professor Port, he seemed to be fixing his mustache in the reflection of the window. Nothing more than th-and there goes the shirt, along with what respect I had for him. He then proceeded to flex and do multiple poses as if he was in a competition. Fortunately, Ozpin closed all the camera recording, unfortunately what I saw will never leave my mind.

"You mean that you teleported onto the school grounds?" Ozpin questioned with doubt in his voice.

Reaper nodded his head. " Yes, more like I teleported into the school, right in front of jaune actually."

" Is this true Mr. Arc?" He asked.

" Yes Headmaster, It is true." I answer after breaking out of my trance.

" Why did you not report this, this person could have killed you and many others." Ozpin said with a stern look on his face.

" I-I wasn't in the best of moods yesterday headmaster, he helped me somewhat." I said with a small studder.

" It doesn't matter if you're in the best of moods or down in the dumps, any suspicious activity should be reported or dealt with immediately." Ozpin stated.

" Yes headmaster." I said looking to the ground.

Ozpin let out a sigh and took a few sips of the coffee before going to his next question.

" What is your semblance?" Ozpin asked, looking back to Reaper.

" My semblance?" Reaper said confused

Ozpin nodded. " Yes, Your semblance. You said that you teleported in the school, so I assume that it has to do with that."

" No, my semblance doesn't really have anything to do directly with teleporting. My semblance is actually Shadow Manipulation, I can manipulate any shadow that I connect my aura to." Reaper explained.

" Can you show me?"

Reaper shrugged " Sure, don't see why not." he then raised his left hand and I watched as his shadow traveled up his body starting from his legs, up his upper body, and wrap around his arm, making his arm look like a shadow.

Ozpin went wide eyed for a second before going back to their standard look.

" What an interesting semblance, the ability to control an object that cannot be touched." Ozpin said, while looking closely at Reapers arm, before the shadow went back to the ground.

" It has its perks." Reaper said, " but it has some downsides to it."

Ozpin then seemed interested, " Downsides? Would you like to explain."

Reaper chuckled, " Allow a man some secrets, sir."

" Fine," Ozpin sighed, " My next question is towards you Mr. Arc."

" What?" I said in surprise.

" Well, it's not a question but more of a deal." Ozpin explained.

I got confused for a seconded and looked at Reaper, he looked just as confused, even with the mask.

" What deal, headmaster?" I asked.

" I'm going to tell you something Mr. Arc." Ozpin said looking me dead in the eyes. " You will no longer attend any classes because as of right now, you are not a student of this school."

My eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

" **What?!** " I shouted while jumping out my seat.

" Yesterday the council told me that having someone that cheated their way into Beacon would not be good for not only this academy, but for the others as well." Ozpin explained. " So they told me that I had to expel you from the school. The decision almost went through until I told them of some of your accomplishments. The only thing that they saw wrong was your transcript, and your combat abilities. So I made a deal with them, a associate of mine is going to come to Vale next week. I told them that if you can impress him in a mock battle with the team I chose and he gives his approval that you have potential in becoming Hunter, we will make you a proper transcript and you will continue your studies in Beacon. The decision to do this though is up to you in the end." He paused for a moment. " Will you take the risk and wait for the mock battle, or are you going to go pack your bags with no idea on where to go."

I began to pace around the room and think about the deal that Ozpin gave me. He was giving me a chance to keep studying at Beacon, and even a proper transcripts. I can finally become the hero that my ancestors were, I can become a proper Hunter. Everything would be better for me, but I have to go through a mock battle with the team of Ozpin's choice. With what I have right now I might not even last the first minute in the match against a team, not to mention I have to impress whoever is coming to see Ozpin. Wait, Ozpin never said anything about winning, all he said is that I have to impress the guy. He's just looking to see if I can qualify to be a Hunter, I think I can do that. I might need to do a lot of training, but I think that I can do that.

" I-I think I could do that sir." I said as I began to relax and sit down.

" Excellent Mr. Arc, so exactly one week from today you will have your mock battle, I will send you the team you're fighting as soon as I come to a decision. Train hard this week, you're going to have to if you want to stay." Ozpin said, sticking out his hand. I reached out and gave a firm handshake. " Before you go I heard that you were staying in Professor Port's classroom to sleep. Is that true?" he asked while letting go of my hand

" Ohhh, yes headmaster it is." I answered

" Well although it's not allowed for a student to sleep in a classroom, there are no dorms open for you to sleep in." after I heard that I started to panic, where was I going to sleep. " I do think I have a place for you though that's outside the school grounds. I will send you the location to your scroll. And I let all your teachers know of your situation. Now you are excused Mr. Arc." And with that I began to walk out of the room and Reaper stood up.

" Reaper, I actually have more to talk about with you." Ozpin said

" Alright then, I guess I'll stay here." Reaper said, sitting back down. I didn't question Ozpin and Reaper didn't seem to have a problem so I walk to the elevator.

" Headmaster may I tell you something?" I looked back and saw him nod. " I no longer have the Arc name, so can you please refer to me as my middle name, Miles." I asked just as the elevator opened. He looked at me for a moment before nodding his head.

" Very well, I hope to see you soon Mr. Miles." And with that I walked into the elevator and closed the door and felt the elevator descend.

 **(End of Ch 4)**

 **Okay I know that I said that I would cancel this story in order to make a 'rewrite' but after reading through it and making a story for A Different Path. I realized that they are becoming two different stories, and because of that I decided that I would bring this back from cancellation. Plus some people were still giving this story follows and favorites, so me bringing this back is my final decision. Please tell me what you all think about this chapter in the review section.**

 **So until next time, Lupus out.**


	5. New Home

**Disclaimers : I do not own any of this but the oc's, everything else belongs to there rightful owners**

"Normal " - speaking

' _italics'- thinking \ flashback_

" _italics"- Reaper talking_

 **Bold - yelling**

 **Bold & underline - special attack**

 ***Bold * - sound effect**

 **The unforgiving path**

 **Ch 5: New Home**

Do you ever have trouble describing the feelings that you have, or maybe you just have too many to describe as one? If you have then you know what I am feeling right now. The only emotion that I was able to point out was relief, the others were just a mystery.

While I was waiting for the elevator to go down to the main building, I was taking deep breaths and leaning against the rail to soothe the feeling in my gut. I heard the elevator door open behind me along with a few voices. I turned to see a hall filled with students.

' _First period must have ended not too long ago.'_ I thought, walking out of the elevator and going towards the exitand putting my head down. _'What should I do now? I've got no classes and I've got nothing to do.'_ I thought to myself, just before I felt a vibration in my pocket. Digging in my pocket, I pulled out my scroll and saw that I had a new message. I opened my scroll to see that the message was from the headmaster, it was a unlocking code, and a map that seemed to lead behind the school and close to the forest.

 _This is where you will be residing for the week, I would suggest that you go there now so that you can know where you will be sleeping and make arrangement. The code that I have sent you will unlock the doors to it. Let me know if there are any issues with the building._

' _Well that answers my question.'_ And with that, I set out to the location of that the map showed me to.

 **(20 minutes later)**

It took awhile to find the place, but regardless, I found it. The map lead me to a simple looking house. The outside of the house was a light brown color with a few windows, and a black roof. I saw this as weird. as I have never seen this house before, or even heard of it. Walking up to the door of the house, I looked for the lock pad but I couldn't find it.

"Great, last time I got locked out was because I couldn't find my scroll. Now i'm locked out because I can't find the lock pad."

"You try behind the mailbox?" I heard a voice say from behind me, the said voice caused me to screech. Turning around, I saw my masked partner digging his finger in his ear.

" Damn Jaune, any higher and you'll attract a nevermore." He said, continuing to try to soothe his ears with his fingers with an irritated look in his eyes.

" Can you not do that," I said with an irritated look of my own. " who knows what I would have done."

" Apparently bursting my eardrums is one of the things you would have done." He said, walking past me and walking to a wall-mounted mailbox. " Hey, come help me. Ozpin said that the lock pad was behind the mailbox." I rolled my eye, but still helped him. I mean, I want to get in too.

"So, what did the headmaster what to talk to you about?" I said, wanting to start a conversation.

" Umm…"

 **(20 Minutes ago)**

 **(P.O.V: Reaper)**

" _Very well, I hope to see you soon Mr. Miles." And with that, Jaune went into the elevator and let the doors close. Before we could get to talking he typed away on his scroll for a few minutes, I waited patiently for him to be finished. When he did finish I got straight to business._

" _So why is it that you want to keep me here?" I asked, leaning forward and putting my elbows on my knees. He didn't answer immediately, he stayed silent for a minute._

" _Why is it that you want to train him?" he finally said. The question was a simple one so I knew the answer almost immediately._

" _When I first saw Jaune, he was just a teen who was just left out to sit in his own despair. He was left behind by all he saw important to him. His friends abandoned him, his family disowned him, he doesn't even get the respect from people that don't know him. Can you imagine what that can do to a man? It can cause a man to hate himself, and seeing a man beaten not by his opponent, but by himself is a tragedy." I explained, remembering the emotions that went through both my mind and Jaunes as he explained the experiences that he went through to me._

" _That doesn't answer my question Reaper." He stated._

" _The reason that I want to train Jaune is because the path that he is walking is both lonely and unforgiving. The way he is now, he'll get lost taking the first few steps. I want to make sure that doesn't happen, that is my reason." I finished, but I know that there are more, there is always more._

" _You seem to talk from experience." he started. " Would you say that you were on this path?" he finished, turning to the window that was at his back. I chuckled at the question._

" _Were? If I'm being honest, I still am." I answered, keeping a small smile on my face as I looked to the ground._

" _You still are? How do you expect to help him if you're still stuck on this path?" He asked._

" _I don't, I expect us to help each other while we walk down this path." He turned back to me with the same face that he had the moment I saw him._

" _Why are you trying so hard for someone you just met less than 24 hours ago." I didn't even have to think._

" _Because in a way, I saw myself in him. A boy that had almost everything striped away from him, and from what I learned. All it takes is a helping hand to save someone from a life of despair." I said remembering the one who gave me a helping hand when I was in need. He seemed satisfied with all the questions that I answered so far._

" _One last question. Can I really trust you to train him." He asked, drinking whatever was left of the coffee in his mug. I nodded._

" _You can trust me to train him, but ultimately it's up to him to put in the work. I have no doubt that he won't put in the work though." I said standing up, ready to leave the room. " Do any of these Windows open by any chance? Oh and can you also send me to where Jaune will be staying!" I asked. He gave me a strange look when I asked my first question, as if he want to question that to._

" _That one does," he pointed to a thin window pane. " and in order to send you that I will have to know your contact information. Oh and when you get there, tell Mr. Miles the lock pad is behind the mailbox." I thought about what he said, should I give him my contact info._

" _Sure, I don't see a problem with it." I said, after giving him my number I went to unlock the window._

" _What are you doing?" Ozpin asked while I unlocked and opened the window. After feeling the cool breeze outside, I put my hand out and summoned a small amount of aura. After that I dropped it to the floor and watched it fall into a shadow._

" _Leaving." I answered simply, he watch me walk to a small corner of the room and do the same thing to a small shaded area. I turned around and tipped my hat to him to say good bye and leaned backwards, letting the shadows swallow me._

 **(Present)**

 **(P.O.V: Jaune)**

" Nothing important." Reaper finally answered after a few seconds. " I think I found it." he said, I looked to where Reaper was looking and saw a small lever that could be pushed down.

" Well? Push it, see what it does." I said wanting to get inside. Reaper nodded and pushed down on it, a click followed and it swung open, revealing a lock pad. It looked a little out dated compared to the ones at the dorms, but hey, beggers can't be choosers. I opened my scroll along with the lock code and held it against the pad while Reaper leaned against the wall. After a few short seconds it recognized the code and unlocked the door. Me and Reaper glance at each other before walking into our new home.

Walking in we were immediately greeted my a living room that had two dark brown couches to the right of us, and a small table the same color to the left. Walking ahead there was a hallway to the left and another living room that split into a kitchen. I walked to kitchen and Reaper walked down the hallway. Walking into the kitchen/living room I saw table made of marble that stood on metal legs with a light above it and a T.V that stood on a entertainment center. Going to a light switch that was next to the table, I flipped the switch. The light did turn on until a few seconds passed. Next thing I did was go to the sink and turned it on the water seemed just and put it on hot to see if we had hot water. After seeing that we did, I went to the stove and turned on the gas. I saw the fire start and turned it off. Everything seemed to be in order.

" Anything wrong?" I heard Reaper say from down the hall.

" Nothing so far." I replied, I turned around and saw a fridge to which I opened. Of course their was nothing in the fridge. But I'm sure it really didn't matter as me and Reaper can always eat the school lu-. " Right, not a student anymore." I said to myself.

" No food." I heard Reaper say behind me. I turned around and saw him leaning over the counter.

" Nope." I answered while closing the fridge. " So how many rooms are there." I asked

" Four in total, all of which have a bed, a desk, lights, and closets. There are also two bathrooms, we are going to have to stock up in toiletries and some other stuff though." he answered.

" Great," I sighed. " So what do we do now?"

"For now let's go into the city and pick up everything we're going to need to survive the week." I nodded, and we both headed to the door, so we can go to the docking station.

 **(End Ch 5)**

 **AN: well I'm back and tired because right now it is two in the morning and need to get weeks worth of sleep in four hours. I apologize for any misspelled words and the short chapter right now. Nothing much to say about the chapter today but maybe you guys do. Let me know what you guys think in the review.**

 **So until next time, Lupus out**


	6. New Training

**Disclaimers : I do not own any of this but the oc's, everything else belongs to there rightful owners**

"Normal " - speaking

' _italics'- thinking \ flashback_

" _italics"- Reaper talking_

 **Bold - yelling**

 **Bold & underline - special attack**

 **The Unforgiving Path**

 **Ch 6: New Training**

" I regret going on those damn thing so much right now." I groaned while balancing myself, and the stuff I was carrying to get to the door of the new house. Me and Reaper had just gotten back from going shopping to get the essentials to get us to survive for the week. That included food, water, toiletries, first aid, and more. Going to the town though, I forgot one important aspect of my body.

" How can you forget that you have motion sickness?" Reaper asked behind me, holding the small two water cases that we got from the city shops.

" Look, it's been awhile since I went to the city, so I forgot." I mumbled while holding my stomach to not throw up my guts. After arriving to the door, I pushed down the lever to the mailbox and dug in my pocket to get my scroll.

" I still can't believe that you have motion sickness." Reaper scoffed, followed by a chuckle.

" Do I have to go over how motion sickness is a common problem nowadays?" I said to him before getting my scroll out. Not wanting to hear his reply, I pressed my scroll to the lock pad, I listened to the door unlock before shoving the door open and made my way to the kitchen.

" Why don't you just get medicine for it?" I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard that.

" What did you say?" I questioned, putting the bags down on the counter.

" Why don't you get medicine." He repeated, putting the cases of water cases down on the counter next to the bags.

" Why didn't you tell me there was medicine for motion sickness?" I screamed, grabbing his shoulders. " We were just at the city, we could have picked some up at the pharmacy we passed." I cried in anguish.

" I thought that you would know that there was medicine. There's medicine for everything nowadays." Reaper responded, almost ripping my hands off of his shoulders.

" If I did know, I wouldn't have throgh up my breakfast on the docks. You know what, whatever, we're not going to go back for awhile anyways. So I shouldn't have to worry about this for some time." I said, sighing in relief. Going into the city is the last thing that I want to do, especially with all the glares I still get. You'd think that they would have better things to do then glare at me. " I'm going to sleep." I said walking to one of the room that were down the hall.

" Good idea, we're about to start training anyways." I heard Reaper say from the kitchen. I ignored it and went to a random room. The room was pretty small, with only a closet, a bed, a bookshelf, and a desk. The bookshelf was stocked with books, leaving no room for others to fit, the desk that was next to it was black, with three shelves on the right of it. I didn't pay any closer attention to anything else but the bed though, as I wanted nothing more than to be embraced by the blankets that covered to bed. I ripped the blankets of the bed in a greedy manner and jumped into the bed. I let the embrace of the blankets warm my body, and with no care about the world around me, I fell asleep.

 **(Unknown Location)**

Water. That was the only sound that I heard while my eyes were closed. The sound of rushing water. Opening my eyes, I saw a clear blue sky and nothing else.

" Where am I?" I asked, I decided to get up and look around. Looking around me, I saw that a beautiful waterfall encircled, leaving me in awe. The waterfalls were colossal, looking as if they would touch the sky. The water from them had a gray hue, and looked like mist. All the water that fell would land in a space that didn't touch the waterfall. I walked to the water that fell and put my hand in it, it was cool to the touch, but something was off. I pulled my hand out and my eyes widened, my hand wasn't wet. Once again, I stuck my hand in the waterfall, but it was still dry. I took a step back, trying to figure this out, I couldn't understand this, how was it that my hand felt the water, but it wasn't getting wet. I also looked down and saw that I was on a large stone, I heard a soft thud behind me along with a familiar voice.

" Finally I'm here, I thought that I would never be able to reach this place." I turned around and saw my masked partner. He noticed me and gave me a small wave. " Awesome, looks like you're here to."

" Where exactly is here Reaper?" I asked, pulling my hand away from the water and walking towards him.

" We're in your mind Jaune." He answered. I stayed silent for awhile, I couldn't understand what he was saying at all, my mind, what was he even talking about

" What do you mean we're in my mind? You can't just enter a person's mind Reaper." I said, it was all too frustrating.

" Under normal means no, you can't go into someone's mind, but we are far beyond normal. We are able to enter each other's mind at any time as long as one of us wishes it." He explained, walking to the 'water' that was falling.

" I-I can't keep up with this, we're in my 'mind'?" he nodded. " And were in my mind, as in our bodies are in here?" Reaper scratched his, unsure of what to say.

" It's not really our bodies that are in here, have you ever heard of lucid dreaming?" He asked, I shook my head. " Lucid dreaming is when you know that you are dreaming, when you lucid dream you have a certain degree of control of the dream."

" So the me that is here right now," I put a hand to my chest. " is just a part of my mind?" Once again, he nodded.

" Exactly, what we are moving is basically like moving in a dream." He said in detail.

" And what about this water, what is it?" I asked, putting my hand in the… whatever really was.

" That's just something that I made with my mind." Reaper replied, doing the same thing that I was doing. " If you really wanted to though you can change it into whatever you want."

" And how would I do that?" I asked, taking my hand out of the water.

" Just close your eyes, and imagine the place that you want to be in." He explained, I did just that. I began to imagine a place where I felt calm, it was a place that I only saw once in a dream. I've not seen it in awhile, but I remember it clearly. I heard the sound of rushing water fade until there was nothing.

" Whoa." I heard Reaper say in surprise, I opened my eyes and saw exactly what I imagined. The rock that was under us and the falls that surrounded us were replaced with water that went as far as the eye can see and was so clear you could see what was in the water. In the water resided many types of fish, too many to say. I looked up and saw the sun along with cloud that gave shade sometimes. And to top it all off, there was a large cherry tree in the center of us. The leaves the on it would fall on a non-existent wind and float on the water beneath our feet.

" Love what you did with the place." Reaper said in a witty manner.

" I know right." I joked, making us both chuckle.

" Alright, we better begin or we won't have enough time."

" Begin what?" I asked, unaware that I wasted my last question.

" The training." He answered simply. " Alright! Let's begin!" He said, sitting cross-legged on the water that was below us and beckoned me to sit in front of him. "Sit." he said, tapping the spot next to him.

" What are we going to do." I asked, sitting down next to him.

" For now we're going to meditate." He said, I gave him a confused look. He seemed to have noticed it and began to explain.

" Okay Jaune, I'm going to give it to you straight. At the level that you're at right now, you have no chance at going against a well coordinated team." He said, giving me a hard hit to my pride. " Not all hope is lost for you though. We still have a chance to improve you with what we have."

" And that would be?" I asked, trying to recover what was left of my pride.

" Aura is what we have." He said. " And it's what we're going to use as an advantage." He seemed to get excited as he said this.

" What are we going to do with the aura?" I asked, raising a eyebrow to the falls.

" Do you not remember what you did earlier today to that beowolf?" I nodded to him, I did remember, how can I forget. All though I was in danger, it was one of the most exhilarating moments in my life.

" Of course I remember, but what does tha-" I slowly began to realize where Reaper was going with this, Reaper saw this and nodded. " I see now." I realized. " But if that's the case, shouldn't I be set then?" I asked, I was already able to channel my aura outside of my body and release it. But Reaper shook his head

"Sadly, no. You're not set." he answered. I was a little shocked by this answer.

" Why not, I was able to channel the aura outside of my body and use it." I said after recovering from the shock.

" Well I'm not denying that, but do you wonder why I put my aura in as well in that moment?" He asked. I couldn't answer his question, at least not immediately.

" I wasn't to support me?"

" Yes but not in the way you think. I put my aura in to stabilize yours, because if I hadn't your arm would be shattered, Possible even blown off." He explained. I shivered at this, now thankful that I hadn't attacked before that

" So what do we do about that?" I asked.

" Like I said before we meditate I will explain how this helps later. Now close your eyes Jaune, think of nothing that doesn't involve these moment. Forget all the problems of today, only focus on the sound of my voice, the sounds that you hear now and you will slowly gain more control of your aura flow." I don't know if Reaper said anything else after that, as all noises were ignored from that moment.

 **(Two hours later)**

"Jaune, were done meditating." I heard Reaper say, tapping his hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes and saw Reaper kneeling in front of me

" How did I do?" I asked, getting up from my position on the ground and dusting myself off. When I got up, I immediately got light headed and stumbled.

" You did break concentration a few times, but you did good. Is this you first time meditating?" He asked, getting off his knees and standing up. I shook my head to the question.

"No, a member of my team would meditate any chance he got. Sometimes he would invite me to go with him." I explained, remembering the last time I meditated with Ren.

" Really, did he meditate often?" he inquired, taking off his hat, mask, and duster, revealing his messy black hair, and the compression shirt that was underneath them.

" No, not really." I said, starting to feel a little uncomfortable talking about my team. " He had a partner that needed a lot of attention." I added, remembering the last time Nora was left alone. _' I wonder what they're doing now that I'm gone.'_ I thought, Reaper saw how I was starting to feel uncomfortable, and decided to move on.

" We should move on, we only passed two hours and we still have four left." He said, folding his duster and placing his hat and mask on top of it, and slowly let them fade away.

" What's next?" I asked, a grin appeared on his face. Although the grin looked friendly, I knew that there was something else behind it.

" Now Jaune, we are going to spar." He said, getting into a stance. I felt my heart fall into my gut as he said that. " You're only going to spar with me for now, but since you have to fight a team, we'll slowly up the number of opponents until we reach four and, hopefully, more. Also seeing as you don't have a weapon right now, we're going to have to do hand-to-hand for now. Hope you learned from that beowolf fight." And with that he rushed towards me.

 **(End Ch 6)**

 **AN: Wow, now Jaune and Reaper have a place to train when their asleep. It took a while to think of something like this, I had to erase the entire chapter as soon as I heard of Lucid Dreaming. I thought that it would make much more sense than what I had originally wrote down. Switching the subject, I'm going to try to put a poll up on my profile, for what you may ask, for Jaune's new weapon(s). Right now I have four ideas right now, just go to my profile to check them out. Also sorry for the short chapter again.**

 **Before I log off, I want the thank those that are following this story and supporting it. I honestly thought that this story wouldn't do well as my grammar wasn't the best. I honestly don't see what you guys see as good in this story, but still I want to thank you guys. So thank you all for following the development of The Unforgiving Path.**

 **So until next time, Lupus out**


	7. Memories

**Disclaimers : I do not own any of this but the oc's, everything else belongs to there rightful owners**

"Normal " - speaking

 _italics- thinking \ flashback_

" _italics"- Reaper talking_

 **Bold - yelling**

 **AN: Before you guys read the chapter, I need to let you guys know that today's chapter is going to be in third person, this is how it's going to be along the training. You may now continue.**

 **The Unforgiving Path**

 **Ch 7: Memories**

Reaper rushed towards Jaune, his body low to the ground with great speed and threw a fast jab. Jaune was able to dodge but he wasn't given the chance to think. Reaper pulled his fist back just as fast as he threw it and delivered another punch, this time it hit him straight in the nose he closed his eyes as it came. The pain that followed was dull, but didn't stick around for long, as it disappeared just as quick as it came.

" Don't close your eye." Reaper commanded, immediately following his punch with an open palm the Jaune's chest. The force that the palm gave made Jaune to fly backwards, causing him to slide a short distance across the water. Jaune sat up after after he stopped, the pain didn't go away immediately this, that was shown by the slow, heavy breathing that came from Jaune. Sucking in all the air he could get in as if it were his last, Reaper sighed at this. This is how the sparring went the whole time, he would see what was wrong with Jaune, and make sure that Jaune would fix it. Whether it be with his words, or if words weren't working, his actions. This was his sixth time telling Jaune about his eyes, it's hard, but if he wants to dodge attacks, he has to keep his eyes open. He wanted Jaune to improve by normal means, but that would take time, time that they didn't have. Jaune's breathing started to get under control, and he looked up.

"Are you trying to kill me?" Jaune yelled, the pain in his chest now disappearing. Reaper called this "sparring" but right now, Jaune was starting to see this more as a beating. Sure he gave him those few minutes to try to hit him, but for every attack that he threw at him, it was ether dodged, parried, or blocked. Jaune did slowly adapt and I did block attacks, but very few, and dodged even fewer. He also gave advice as they sparred, so he's not going to end this spar without saying I didn't learn something.

" This is the sixth time I told you about your eyes Jaune. I want you to see what happens now instead of telling you." Reaper said, explaining his action. " You have to see the attack through, even if it hurts. You do this so you can be ready when the the next attack comes. Even if this is something small, this can be what saves your life." Jaune nodded to this, it was all he could do. He wasn't experienced enough with his hands to see holes in Reaper's explanation. Jaune got up, putting his hand to his chest.

' _Man, Pyrrha's training was, much easier than this.'_ Jaune thought, getting back up and into a stance, before Reaper shook his head.

" That's all we're going to do today, I'll give you a break before you wake up to rest your mind." Reaper said, he honestly wished there was more time, but they needed to rest their minds so that they don't damage them. The sun that was above them and grew extremely bright, so bright that I had to cover my eyes, and then it went dark

 **(?)**

" _I can't get caught." A dark haired boy, no older than five, said to himself. He was running in a thick forest, he looked as if he was being pursued. He stopped running and looked to the tree next to him, he needed a place to hide. " This will have to do." And without a second thought, he scaled the tree to the best of his ability. When he got as high as he could he laid his body on a branch that supported his weight, and he waited. Not long after he reached the top, something sprinted by. The boy stayed put, he didn't even risk taking a breath. After he was sure that whatever went by was away, he climbed down. He looked both directions to it was gone, but failed to look behind him. If he did he would have saw a figure rising from the bush, the figure saw the opening he left and immediately grabbed him._

" _Gotcha!" The boy jump out of their grip in surprise, and looked behind him. He saw a young girl with white hair about his age, she was wearing a baggy shirt and pants. The shirt was just a simple gray color with no other design, the pants that she wore were black with purple linings on the bottom and black shoes to match. The features that stood out the most though, were a pair of white wolf ears atop her head, and a white tail that was on her lower back. She was a faunus._

" _Dang it! How did you find me Lykos!" The boy whined, stomping his foot on the ground. The boy and the girl, now named Lykos, were playing a game of tag not too far from the village that they lived in. Lykos pointed to her nose._

" _This little thing can smell your sweaty body anywhere." She said, puffing her chest in pride. The boy did not look pleased by this answer, and showed this by putting a scowl on his face._

" _That's no fair, I can't do that." He whined again, Lykos gave him a grin as he said this._

" _It's not my fault you're ...com..petitive." She said, stumbling on the last word. This was her first time using such a large word, it caused her tongue to twist as she attempted to say it._

" _What does that mean?" He asked, confused at the word she almost spit out, Lykos shrugged._

" _I don't know. I heard your mom call you it when you weren't near." She explained, the boy would probably be offended by it if he knew what it meant. " We should start heading back to the village, it will be dark soon." Lykos said, making her way to the village, the boy followed soon after her._

" _Race you there." The boy challenged before sprinting with Lykos on his heels_

 **(?)**

 _The duo made it to the village in less than ten minutes, but something was wrong. The villagers would usually be going home after a day of hard work. But that didn't seem to be the case right now. It almost seemed empty_

" _Why does it feel empty?" Lykos asked, looking around the street they were on, it was nearly empty except for a few people. Those who were there though were looking at the fountain that was in the center of town. They arrived to the fountain and made their way through the crowd. There seemed to be crowd around it, and in the center of the crowd, there was the village leader , Dulcem, and a bald man that wore black, dented armor, and on his back was a large claymore sword. The sword had many gears where the swords fuller was, showing that it was more than a sword._

" _I ask you once more Ducem, I ask for your village, and its resources." The man stated, clenching his fists in frustration. Ducem saw this but he stood his ground._

" _And I told you that I'm not giving you a single grain of rice as long as I'm the leader." He said in a firm voice._

" _Fine, then if you're not with us, you're against us." He said, walking away. Many people gave him glares as he passed them, but the man thought nothing of it and kept walking. All of us watched him leave the village until he disappeared into the forest._

" _Damien!" Ducem called, a dark haired man in his early thirties appeared out of the crowd and walked towards the leader._

" _Yes Ducem?" Damien said, Decem put a hand on his shoulder._

" _I want you to put more guard on the village tonite. That man has something planned, I'm not sure what, but it's not good." Decem said, to which Damien nodded. Decem walked away with a stern look on his face. Damien stood still with a conflicted look before his eyes, landed on the dark haired boy. His face then broke out to a large smile and he walked towards him, when he got close to him, he embraced him and lifted him into his arms._

" _There my boy, where were you all day?" Damien asked._

" _I was playing with Lykos." He answered. " What did that man want dad?" The boy asked in a scared tone. He didn't know what was scary about the man. Maybe it was the tone of his voice, or the armor he wore, maybe even the sword. He wasn't sure._

" _Who? Him? That baldy thought we would give him the village, but we didn't so there's nothing to worry about." He said, trying to reassure his son that it was fine. It work as the young boy smiled brightly. " Why don't we head home, you need to eat so you can go to bed. I think that your mom's cooking your favorite to." And just like that the boys smile got wider. " Would you like to join us Lykos?" Lykos nodded her head and followed them both home._

 **(?)**

 _After a large dinner, and a story read to him by his father, the young boy was sound asleep in his bed. But it wasn't long before multiple screams woke him up, he got out of his bed and walked towards the window to see what caused the screams. What he saw horrified him, he saw flames consume multiple building, not only that, but on the ground people were being attacked by people with black crow masks. A banging from his door tore his eyes from the window. It was one of the men, he didn't even think twice before charging the child with a dagger. He closed his eyes and waited for the blade to come. He instead heard the man cough, and a liquid fall on his face, he opened his eyes and saw his father holding his saber. He didn't say a word, he only pick the boy up and ran out of the house._

" _Dad, what's happening?" The boy cried, watching the flames dance across the houses._

" _Just closes your eyes son." The man said in a strained voice as he ran. The boy listened, and he buried his face in his father's neck. Even though he covered his eyes, that didn't stop him from the screams the screams of people, or the heat of the flames. He felt his dad stop and he opened his eyes, he saw that he was in a building that was dark. His father set him down and kneeled in front of him. There were tears in his eyes as he looked at him, the boy had never seen his father cry before. But before he could speak, his father did._

" _Stay in here, don't go outside for nothing." He said, forcing each word out through the sobs._

" _What wrong dad, you're not staying here?" The boy sobbed. The man shook his head, and without a word, he dug in his pocket and took out a silver necklace with a purple gem._

" _Your mother wanted you to have this." he said, slipping the necklace around his neck. He then embraced his son, knowing it would be the last he would get from him. " I love you." He said. He didn't give the child a chance to say it back as he ran off and closed the latch and blocking it. The boy only cried, and stayed put._

 **(with Jaune)**

Jaune shot out from his bed, sweat covered his body as he got up. He looked around and saw the same room that he fell asleep in. He let out of sigh of relief, and ran a hand across his forehead to wipe away the sweat.

' _What the hell was that?'_ Jaune thought, he was confused, he saw a dream that didn't even feel like a dream, it felt more like a, "memory." he said the last part out loud. The memory wasn't his own though, and he had a feeling that he knew whose it was. His thoughts were interrupted by his door opening, revealing his masked partner.

" Hurry up and get ready, we need to go somewhere." Reaper said in a hurried tone, Jaune only nodded his head. Reaper left the room as quick as he entered and shut the door. Jaune was still in deep thought, thinking about what he saw. As he thought, he asked himself one question.

" If I can see his memories...does that mean he can see mine?"

 **(End Ch 7)**

 **AN: Wow writing this chapter took a lot out of me, I tried to write this in a week and I can say this now, I think the outcome was good. In this chapter, I wanted to show Jaune what happened to Reaper and in a later chapter, I will do the same to show Reaper what Jaune went through. That will be in a later chapter though. Also, for the third person thing, I wanted to do this to show what both Jaune and Reaper are thinking, though it doesn't show that on this chapter, please tell me if you like it. One last thing, the next chapter is when Jaune's weapon will be revealed, so get your votes in while you can.**

 **So until next time, Lupus out.**


	8. Faith and Virtue

**Disclaimers : I do not own any of this but the oc's, everything else belongs to there rightful owners**

"Normal " - speaking

 _italics- thinking \ flashback_

" _italics"- Reaper talking_

 **Bold - yelling**

 **The Unforgiving Path**

 **Ch 8: Faith and Virtue**

Most people would consider never doing an activity again if said activity brought discomfort or pain. No one wants to feel any pain, but sometimes, it just can't be helped. Especially for Jaune, because said activity was just simply being in anything that moves faster than he can run. He couldn't help it with his motion sickness, even now as he rubbed a hand on his gut to soothe it to keep him from vomiting. He didn't know why he was on air bus to Vale, Reaper said that he would see when they got there. But for whatever reason it was, he would get Reaper back for it, he would be sure of it.

' _I hate you, I hope you know that.'_ Jaune thought, wincing as he gut flipped. He had to bare with this the whole ride, the people near him had moved away from him the moment he sat down.

" _Yeah I figured that the moment you threatened to send whatever you puked my way."_ He deadpanned inside his head. Although he'd rather be out of Jaune's body, but he had to be inside to in order to get him in the bus. In order to do that, Reaper had to take over and walk him in the bus and seat him until it took off, dealing with all curses and threats he threw his way. Jaune would have threw another curse at Reaper if the intercom hadn't interrupted him.

' _We will now be arriving to our destination, we advise that you take the closest available seat. Thank you.'_ A male voice said, presumably the pilot. Jaune let a sigh of relief escape his lips, thankful for the announcements.

" _See, the ride wasn't so bad."_ Reaper chuckled,

' _You'd better pray that you have extra clothes.'_

 **(Vale's docks)**

After getting off the bus and, sadly, puking out his guts into a waste bin. Jaune went into an alley that he was sure nobody would look down, and waited for his bastard of a partner to come out of the shadows. Jaune watched as his shadow shifted into the corner of the ally and in a matter of seconds, his partner appeared with a nervous smile, praying that Jaune had emptied his stomach in the trash. He was wearing a plain black t-shirt, along with grey cargo pants and black running shoes. On top of his head was the same black hat that he refused to take off,along with the gloves on his hand. He did get rid of the mask, however, probably so that they wouldn't attract attention.

"Whats with you and dark colors?" Jaune asked, eyeing Reaper's outfit with a critical eye. It seemed that he didn't wear any other color.

Reaper shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, I just can't help myself." Reaper replied, doing some small stretches, taking over Jaune body had left him sore. Especially with all the resistance that Jaune put up.

"Whatever, so where are we going?" Jaune asked once again, he felt that he should know, since he didn't follow through with his threat earlier.

"We are going to get you a weapon Jaune." Reaper said, walking past Jaune's frozen form.

"Wait! A weapon! What weapon are we getting?" Jaune asked, getting out of his frozen state. Reaper turned and stared, didn't even say a word before turning around. "Really, you're just going to stare and not say a thing."

"Yes I am."

"What did I do to piss you off?" Jaune mumbled, following Reaper down the alley and onto the sidewalk.

"Hey do you know what street this is?" Reaper asked, looking for a sign to give him the name. Jaune nodded.

"Secura Lane." Jaune answered, walking next to him and put his hands in his jacket pocket. Reaper nodded and took walked down the sidewalk, letting Jaune catch up. As they walked down the sidewalk, Jaune saw some people staring at them and whispering to each other, mostly him. Jaune sighed and let them talk about him, he would rather have that then be glared at and mocked.

"Here let's get something to-go." Reaper said pointing to a building. Jaune looked up and saw a small building called _'Robin's Tea'_. The building was gray with windows almost all around the building, inside there were a few people sitting at tables either talking with whoever they brought or enjoying what beverages the place had to offer.

"Why?" Jaune asked, walking in besides Reaper into the building. Reaper immediately brought a hand to the back of his head and adopted an apologetic look.

"Think of this as a sorry for getting on the bus and making you throw up half your weight in the trash." Reaper chuckled with an awkward smile.

"Oh yeah, I still have to get you back for that don't I?" Jaune said, putting a hand to his chin and walking to the counter where a guy their age was. The teen gave a pleasant smile as they walked to the counter.

"Welcome, What can I get you both?" He asked, never losing the smile. Reaper placed a hand on the counter and gave a smile of his own.

"I'll just have a taro tea with whip cream." Reaper said, the teen nodded, looking to Jaune for his order. Jaune looked at the menu about and realized that he had no idea what was on the menu.

"Um... just give me what he's having." Jaune asked, pointing his thumb to Reaper. The teen nodded and added up the total, to which Reaper paid.

"Thank you sir, please have a seat while we make your order." The teen said walking through a door. Jaune and Reaper walked to a table near the window and sat across from each other. They stayed silent for a minute, just to enjoy the quiet.

"So," Jaune said, breaking the silence. "You said were going to get me a weapon, but from where?" Jaune asked, placing his forearms on the table and leaning in.

"You're not going to stop are you?" Reaper sighed while Jaune nodded. "We're going to a blacksmith that owes me a small favor." Reaper explained. Jaune raised a brow to this.

"You have people that owe you favors? Jaune asked skeptically, Reaper looked at him with confused eyes.

"Of course, don't you?" Reaper asked, Jaune gave him a look that said 'are you serious'.

"I did, but it usually had to do with having them do my homework. Not give a weapon to someone." Jaune deadpanned, Reaper rolled his eyes to this.

"Well yeah, because you were in school, that's as large of a favor you're going to get. If you go out there and help people, you'll see how many people will be willing to pay you back." Reaper said, when he finished the teen from the counter came with the drinks.

"Here you guys go, two taro tea with whip cream." He said, placing a purple beverage with black orbs in them. they both thanked him and took them outside. Jaune took a sip from the thick straw and tasted the tea.

"Not bad." Jaune complemented, the tea had a sweet and bitter taste. The sweetness coming from the tea, and the bitterness from the orbs. They continued down the sidewalk drinking the tea and talking to each other.

"Are we close?" Jaune asked, throwing the cup that once held tea in the trash. They had been walking for nearly an hour with no break, they started to walk on the shady parts of Vale.

"Yeah, we're close. We just need to turn this corner." He said pointing at an alley. Jaune wasn't sure if he was serious about going down an alley until he actually turn and walked down it.

"Uhh are you sure you just don't have the wrong directions?" Jaune asked, but still followed him down the alley. Reaper nodded and continued to walk.

"Yes, I'm sure." Reaper said. "As a matter of fact, we're already here." Reaper said, stopping at a metal door. The door look rusted and the building that was around it looked like multiple Grimm had came and attacked it. This didn't look like a blacksmith's shop, in fact, Jaune was sure that he had saw a house like this in a horror movie. Jaune flinched when he heard Reaper knock on the door, it sounded like he was slamming his hand on the door instead of knocking. Real settling.

" **What the hell is it!"** Jaune jumped when he a man shout on the other side, Reaper on the other hand, didn't even flinch. **"Do you not know how early it is, dammit!"** The sound of stomping was present before the door was almost yanked from its hinges. What replaced the door was a fair-skinned man with blue-eyes and dirty blond hair with an extremely irritated look. The man's hair was pulled into a ponytail that reached his mid-back and also sports a chest-length beard, although the man seemed to be in his late fifties, he was well-built. He wore a green robe that fell down to his feet, the robe had a slit goin up his right leg, revealing the black pants underneath them. On his arms he wore red bracers with overlaying metal, both looked like they had been worn.

"Nice to see you to Mr. Kataigída." Reaper said with a small smile, the man's face looked less irritated and more relaxed.

"I thought you wouldn't be coming here until tomorrow." The large man said, pulling out a scroll and checking his messages. While he did he moved to the side and let them into the building, Jaune eyes widened in surprise as he walked in. Inside the building had a hard wood floor up to a counter. Behind that was a concrete floor along with a forge, sanders, multiple tools, and other items. It really surprised Jaune, the inside of the building was completely different from the outside.

"I know, but it turns out that we're going to need to get him a weapon now." Reaper said, pointing to Jaune. The older man looked at Jaune as if to size him up.

"So this is the boy that you were talking about." He said, walking around him to get a better image of Jaune body. "You were right, he really isn't much right now." The man said, stopping in front of Jaune and put his hand out. "Nice to meet you young man, My name is Kítrino Kataigída." He introduced himself like he didn't just insult him, but Jaune still took the hand and shook it.

"Hi, uhh,,, my name's Jaune A-Miles." Jaune quickly corrected, looking away from Kitrino. Kitrino caught this immediately.

"Look me in the eyes when you talk to me, and speak clearly." Kitrino commanded, his blue eyes hardening while trying to meeting Jaune's. Not wanting to get on his bad side,Jaune looked back almost instantly the words left his lips

"My name is Jaune Miles." Jaune said with more volume to his voice.

"There we go." The older man said, nodding in approval. "So you are here to get yourself a weapon?" He asked, looking at both Reaper and Jaune. Reaper nodded to the question.

"Yeah we need one now so we can get him used to using a weapon. We only have six days to train." Reaper explained, Kitrino nodded

"I understand. Jaune," He looked to Jaune. "Follow me." He commanded, walking behind the counter to the shop. Jaune followed him until he reached the back of the shop where there was a door. Kitrino opened the door, revealing a staircase that lead to a lower part of the building. "Go down there and chose a weapon, remember, chose a weapon that will help you, not hold you back." Kitrino advised, Jaune nodded and walked down the stairs slowly. Behind him he heard the door shut and the sound of voices, Jaune continued. When he reached the bottom of the stairs he saw a long hallway, on the walls there were weapon cases with one weapon in each of them. The weapons ranged from a pair of pistol to a double headed axe. There were too many weapons for Jaune to chose from.

"Which one do I chose?" Jaune groaned, most of the weapons in the room, he had no experience with. He reached the end of the room and groaned again, there was at least twenty weapon in this hallway and yet none of them would work for him. "Great, What now?" He almost got up and went back up the stairs until he noticed a large metal crate near the corner of the hallway. Curious, Jaune walked up the the crate, unlatched it, and opened it. In the crate were two swords both were one-handed straight swords that had a mirror polish. Their blades were silver and slender, though not to the extent of weiss's rapier. Their cross guards were perpendicular to the grip, both having the design of daggers and at the center of both crossguards were a white crystals where the small fuller of the blade connected. Their grips were silver, but one was wrapped in white cloth, the other black. Jaune gaped at the design of the blades, they were simple and elegant but looked like they can get the job done, just what he needed. He looked in the crate again and found their sheaths, they were both a simple black color, with thick straps.

"Hey did you chose a weapon yet?" Jaune heard Reaper call from upstairs. He looked at both blades and picked both up and sheathed them, they were the perfect weight for him. He walked up the stairs, he gave an excited smile to both Reaper and Kitrino stood. Kitrino gave a surprised look when he saw the blades in Jaunes hands, before laughing.

"Of all the weapons you could have chosen, you choose the one of my mistakes." He laughed, placing a hand over his gut. Jaune raised a brow to what he said.

"Your mistake? What do you mean by that?" Jaune asked

"I crafted these blades when I was a younger, do you see the crystal on the guard?" Jaune nodded. "That was originally a fire dust crystal, the dust would run through the fuller to evenly spread it's element, But the dust in it ran empty. The mistake was that I never gave the blade a mechanism to eject the crystal, so now it's stuck on the blade for design, no purpose." He explained, catching his breath.

"Well the blades are still sharp," He said, pulling on one of the blades and ran his thumb on the edge. "So they should work just fine for me. I was never one to deal with fancy weapons, too complicated." Jaune said, smiling at his reflection from the blade, one he hadn't seen in awhile. Kitrino shrugged.

"If you say so, I won't be missing them anytime soon. What are you going to name them?" He ask. Jaune looked at the weapon for a bit before coming up with their names.

He held up the the sword with a white grip. "Faith." He looked to his other blade. "And Virtue, that is what I will name them."

"Good names, but what about a symbol on the weapons?"

"A symbol?" Jaune asked confused, Kitrino nodded.

"Yes a symbol, something so to make your sword different from the rest." He explained, Jaune thought about it. Did he want a symbol, did he need a symbol?

"Yes, I would like one." Jaune said, The older man nodded and held his hands out.

"Good, What would you want it to be and where." He asked, gripping both blade in his large hand as Jaune handed them to him.

"I would like the design to be a Phoenix on crystal and if you can, the sheaths." Kitrino gave him a questioning look.

"A Phoenix? Interesting choice, any reason why." The man asked putting the blades on a work table and grabbing a sketchbook and a pencil and began drawing.

"There was a myth before the war about Phoenixes, that they were once nevermores before a Phoenix. It is said that when a nevermore is killed by fire that it is burning away all of its sins. When the Nevermore is completely burned to nothing but ash, a new creature will arise from the ashes of its former self. A creature of negativity and darkness reborn as one of fire and light That is what I wish to do, I don't want to dwell on everything that has happened to me. I want to raise above all of that and be reborn as a new person. That is why I choose it." Jaune told in pride, he noticed how both of them listened closely to the story, it made him somewhat embarrassed.

"Well said Jaune." Kitrino said, holding out the sketch book for Jaune and Reaper to see. On it was a well draw image of a Phoenix, it was simple enough to fit on the crystal and sheath, but had enough detail to know what it was.

"Wow, You're good at drawing sir, and I hadn't even been talking for three minutes." Jaune said, admiring the work. Kitrino shrugged.

"You have to be if you want to be a blacksmith, it has a lot of drawing for using mostly hammers and anvils. So you're alright with this design?" Jaune nodded. "Alright, just wait for awhile, it shouldn't take more than an hour." He said, and with that he went to work on the crystal and sheaths.

It was at that exact moment that that Jaune felt his scroll vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out and read what was on his notifications. It was a message from the headmaster. The message had the details about his fight, as Jaune read the message, he felt his blood go cold as he got to the team name.

"What happened Jaune you look like you seen a ghost." Reaper joked, but Jaune really wished that he had seen a ghost. He would have been willing to see any ghost in place of this name.

"I-I know who I'm fighting." Jaune stuttered, showing Reaper the scroll and seeing his eyes go wide as well.

"Well," Reaper coughed. "That's unexpected."

 **(End of Ch:8)**

 **AN: I wonder who Jaune will be fighting, ah who am I kidding I know already. But still, I'll leave it to your imaginations. Now as you can see the dual swords won the poll, if you're having trouble with with what the blades look like look up an image of Dark Repulser and it might help. And for the Phoenix design look at this:**

 **display_pic_with_**

 **That is what the design will be, and that artwork isn't mine just so you know**

 **There is something that I want to talk about and that's upload times. Recently i've been uploading chapters for my stories every week, one chapter for one story. The only reason for that is because i've recently had my schedule cleared up. So don't expect me to upload every week, I try to upload when I can. That's all I have to say, if you have any questions leave them in the review, or pm me.**

 **So until next time, Lupus out**


	9. Hiatus

**Hello it's me, Lupus. As some of you may know, I haven't uploaded a chapter to any of my fanfics ever since February 12. And I'm sorry to say but this is 'hiatus' is going to continue until summer break comes. I've been piled with school work and my job. And with finals coming, it's only going add more to my plate. When summer comes it is going to make it easier, so i have to put all my time to school work and my job for now. I am by no means stopping any of my stories, and will be back at it ASAP. I felt that I should let you guys since I left you all waiting and you all wouldn't be on your toes waiting for a chapter.**

 **So until next time, Lupus out**


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